


Amusing Trip

by q00zan



Category: HEARTBEAT (Video Game)
Genre: Funny, Gen, Road Trip, Road Trips, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-07-29 07:21:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20078344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/q00zan/pseuds/q00zan
Summary: The Galliards and their Mogwai companions decide to go on a road trip to an amusement park





	Amusing Trip

**Author's Note:**

> Written for HEARTBEAT Discord's Summer Event Vol. 1 in July 2019, the topic of which was a road trip.  
Hope you enjoy this one! A lighthearted trip.

“Are you sure you packed all of your stuff?”

“Yes, Blitz, for the fifty fifth time - yes… why are you so worried?”

“Well. It’s a little bit weird to sit here like that just waiting. I have to do something, right?”

“... Let it happen.”

Young Rick and his trustworthy mogwai companion were sitting down on the comfy dark brown sofa, situated in the corner of the living room. While the boy was too busy playing a video game on TV, all relaxed, the minotaur - on the contrary - seemed very tense as he watched his sister and her conjurer scuttle around their apartment. Not in panic, but in full disarray. Blitz and Rick had prepared for the trip about an hour ago. Thankfully, they wouldn’t be late anyway with the things they had in mind for the journey, but it was still very confusing.

“Maybe if we go sit in the car they’ll be quick…” Blitz wondered, tapping his feet on the floor nervously.

“Nah. I gotta beat this level first anyway,” Rick responded, quite honestly disinterested.

“What are you playing?” the mogwai shuffled a bit closer to his conjurer and stared at the screen, curious.

“Agrario. It’s a game about a farmer who… actually, I’m not sure, but he just jumps on enemies and collects coins. Pretty sure that’s what farmers do,” Rick voiced his thoughts on the matter, rapidly pressing buttons on the controller.

“Huh. That’s cool. Are you winning though?”

“I’d like to think that I am.”

Something almost fell down the stairs. Turned out it was just Ann and Chip almost fighting over something. They made peace when they reached the living room, however.

“Alright, we cut the water, cut the gas, we cut electricity yet?” Galliard was listing one thing after another, certainly caring for her home that’d be left unattended for a while longer than usual.

“Uh. I suppose,” Chip blurted out after a little bit of thinking.

“How can it be cut if there’s lights on!”

“I thought that was the sun.”

“I don’t remember our TV running on solar panels, Chip! I seriously don’t!” Ann said, huffing - she was so nervous about the whole thing she just couldn’t contain her emotions - and walked over to the circuit breaker box to make sure their home wouldn’t see the light of lamp til their return. Everything switched off.

Blitz looked a bit shocked, turning to Rick. He asked:

“Oh no, what about your game? The power went out…”

Rick snickered just a little bit, unplugging everything, but somehow detaching part of the gaming system from some kind of a docking station. Suddenly, it came back to life, the game continuing from the point where they had to leave it for a moment.

“It’s Glissando’s newest console, Glitch. You can take it anywhere,” Rick explained.

“If you’re done boasting stuff you’ve bought with my money, can we get going? We’re waiting!” Ann said, storming out of the apartment.

“I’d been saving up for a long time to buy it…” the younger Galliard muttered, a bit upset, “And we waited more.”

“Come on, boys. Don’t worry about it. Your sister just wants us to have a good time! Although…” Chip was saying, reassuring, but then groaned in the end.

Blitz and Rick grabbed a small backpack each of their belongings, and were about to leave. Then, the young conjurer saw Chip reach for something lying on top of a drawers chest, with quite the malicious intent.

“Chip. You promised you would give it up…”

“Who, me?! Well. Hrgh. Hmpf,” she bit her lips, and sighed quite heavily, abandoning her source of guilty pleasure behind.

Ann locked the door to their apartment and made sure it was so - about five times. She almost slammed the door to the staircase open.

SLAM!

Something got hit by it and fell back, then slid down a wall. Just minutes ago, Shep stood there with another gorgeous bouquet of flowers.

“This is it. This is the one that will make her understand. Each time I bring those to her, it’s like, she blushes so hard, and it looks like her head is almost spinning! She totally likes flowers! Wish they weren’t so pricey though… right. Okay. Remember your line. Where is it…” Shep was talking to herself, hiding on the staircase. She juggled the bouquet around, from hand to hand, until she remembered which one to look at. On her palm, she had a phrase in Snowverian written down, apparently one that would impress Ann - or so she was told. Too bad a bit of it got smeared - her hands were sweating from all the worrying. “Voulez-vous... coucher avec… mo-... moi? ce soir?- Augh!” she was practising the line out loud, when all of the sudden the door to the staircase slammed right into her face, knocking her back to the wall. She was defeated. Her vision blurred and head all spinning, she thought she saw Ann walk by…

“A-a-achoo! Someone put flowers up in our block again?!” Ann groaned after a sneezing fit. She quickly descended to the ground floor, and the rest of the Galliard household followed, not noticing Shep lying nearby.

They soon reached the car and took their seats. Blitz and Rick sat in the back, Chip took her spot next to the driver, and Ann was the driver, in fact. Her brother and the mogwai were watching her carefully this morning, making sure she wouldn’t try to spice up her road trip beforehand. Their security was at stake, after all.

“Seatbelts on!” she said, loudly.

“Seatbelts on!” Chip repeated after her, struggling to drag the belt out of its socket.

“I got it! Let me help you, Rick…” Blitz said, buckling up quickly.

“I’m fine, thanks… I got this,” the boy responded. He got his handheld console up already.

“Grrr!” Chip was still struggling with hers. Having noticed that, Ann decided to give her a hand in this trying task - and clicked the belt in with ease. Chip blushed a bit. “... Thanks.”

Their car was the one any happy family would have - not very outstanding, but very trustworthy and spacious in the back - for all those extra purchases you get in a mall far away, or, perhaps, for your camping equipment? Ironically, the Galliards barely used it for those purposes. Rick hid in the trunk several times, though, just for fun.

Ann turned the keys, starting the car up. It took a little bit, but she had gotten used to her beloved car’s captrices. The car slowly made its way down the street and out of town. Some townsfolk waved at them - everyone knew their conjurers. The place would be safe without them, no doubt, considering how calm everything has been ever since Eve Staccato became ambassador.

After just a short while, Chip reached for the music player in the car. She pressed a couple of buttons and got the radio playing. She kept switching from station to station endlessly, until she found the one everyone enjoyed best - most of the times.

“It’s-s-s-s Piecewood Daytime Radio you’re tuning into! Up and running with you all time, despite the name! Now, after that long commercial break we must get back to music… we’re taking requests! And here comes one of them,” the DJ spoke and introduced a caller.

“Howdy! My name’s Belle, from Bowfort! We here love your radio show! We wanna hear that new song about riding a horse, all my pals here love it!” a familiar voice spoke up.

“Alrighty then! Saddle up for the newest, freshest hit in Piecewood: Outta Town Path!” the man on the microphone announced the upcoming song and let it run. Ann gasped.

“Oh! I know this song! Very popular…” Ann commented on it.

“I prefer when they just run classic hits… but this is alright,” her mogwai voiced her reaction.

“It’s OK but it doesn’t come close to the true classics,” Rick said.

“Oh that lame old-timer stuff you listen to?” Ann snickered, watching the road carefully. They were getting farther from town.

“It’s not lame!” Rick raised his voice just a bit, because his sister raised the volume on purpose.

“Ann, my eardrums!” Chip said, turning the volume down.

“I like all kinds of music…” Blitz intervened.

“I’m not sure if I was born in the wrong generation, or not, anymore…” Rick finally commented on his sister’s tastes. They all calmed down and let the nice song on the radio play as their car rode down a somewhat bumpy road - at times it was just full of potholes.

They passed the golden rows of Froxeter forest, patches of thick bushes all around, several abandoned fields, and even more of those tended to by locals. They were following a round curving out of Aeros which then headed north - just where their destination was. A long time ago that would sound ridiculous, yet time passed and a large underground tunnel for vehicles was constructed between Aeros and Solburg. Apparently, even the gnomes helped - interested in sealing off particular parts of the tunnels to themselves and leaving other areas for humans. 

The destination was a fun one. An amusement park that all four of them had been looking forward to visiting… or at least Ann decided so. The rest didn’t mind it - leaving town for some while would be good for the mood. Sometimes it felt as if the conjurers’ duties were a bit too much, and Blitz and Chip just couldn’t sit still anymore. Chip especially.

Ann was quite good at driving - when not influenced. Her eyes were practically glued to the road, following every bit of it, noticing all in sight.

“Gotta watch out… especially when there’s fields around. I heard June got attacked by tanuki insurance scammers. Jumped right in front of her…” Ann spoke up.

“June? She has a car? That girl wouldn’t drive a skateboard! I saw that funny clip of her on TrueTube where she fell off the pier right into the water on that thing! It was REALLY funny, and I laughed,” Chip expressed her feelings.

“It’s ‘ride’ a skateboard or just ‘skateboard’, Chip…” Rick felt the need to correct the older Morax.

“Oh aren’t you a little grammar authoritarian, are you now?!” the minotaur turned in her seat to look back at the younger Galliard, almost ripping her seatbelt accidentally - she was a bit too strong for some things.

“Don’t shake the car!” Ann warned her. “And if you still care - no, June was riding a bicycle at that time. In an open field. I don’t know how those mogs think the scams would work, but it definitely wouldn’t when it’s practically an empty field… I just don’t wanna hit them or anything.”

“I’ll jump out of the window and hit them back then!” Chip reassured her conjurer.

“What did I say about violence on our road trip?!”

“Grrr… fine.”

They kept driving, and driving, and driving. Out of boredom - or genuinely invested - Blitz sometimes would start singing along while listening to the radio. Turned out he knew a lot of songs - not exactly by heart - but enough to fill in the chorus and some of the bits. It wasn’t surprising if you knew that this particular minotaur was one of those elusive home radio listeners. Perhaps that was because the TV set is a bit away from the kitchen and not exactly facing it, and Blitz just couldn’t focus on watching something while working in the kitchen or fulfilling daily chores.

His sister, however, had been staring through the car window for a while - watching anything, absolutely anything that passed by. They were going quite fast, but she could still enjoy a view for some little while here in there. She saw large fields, farmland - houses and barns stationed one after another, big and small fences around the land. Sometimes, she even caught a glimpse, or maybe even a good view of a shepherd overlooking a sheep bunch, or just a large dog chasing a herd across grass. Somewhere far away - even more houses, maybe a temple or another taller building of sorts - a small town, maybe even a village. She got used to living in a place like Aeros, and despite her family’s past - she couldn’t imagine ever leaving. At least not without her conjurer and Rick.

Rick himself never thought about whether he would leave home or not. Perhaps, he hadn’t realized yet that sometimes people move out to go on with their lives. Change a place, change their pace. He was thinking about his game, about the road trip and about not upsetting his sister, who definitely just wanted everyone to have some fun. Perhaps, he was wrong, but he didn’t mind it otherwise - if Ann wanted to present herself as this active, decisive family leader when it came to outings - fine.

After a while of the drive, Blitz was sleeping in the back, sometimes sliding to the side and almost falling on Rick - the only thing that held him back was the belt, which seemed less and less reliable with each tug, and it worried Rick - he couldn’t stop glancing to the side to make sure his large minotaur mog wasn’t going to crush him accidentally. Still, he really liked Blitz and didn’t want to disturb him. The boy focused on his video game.

“One hundred twenty two… one hundred twenty three…”

“Who in the hell tuned us into a number station?!” Ann hissed, messing with the radio, still keeping her eyes on the road - despite it being empty. She noticed that the chanting just didn’t go away. Soon enough she realized it was Chip saying those numbers out loud. The minotaur was counting utility poles outside stuck along the road.

At a second glance, it was sort of cute, so Ann decided not to interrupt her mogwai carrying out her important deed. They were halfway to the amusement park.

And soon enough, the car stopped.

“Are we there yet?” Chip looked at Ann, full of expectations and seemingly impatient. Just yesterday she had been barely excited about the trip, yet there she was… or, perhaps, she just got tired of sitting in the car?

Blitz woke up and yawned really loudly, then immediately apologized. Rick didn’t even flinch, completing level after level in his game.

“We… we’re out of petrol…” Ann hissed, grasping the wheel tighter. “How did I not see this?!”

“Wow. Trip’s over. Let’s go home now,” Rick mumbled.

“Rick... we can’t go home if the car won’t go! Be nice,” Blitz scolded his conjurer, although very softly.

“Is there a petrol station near?! I’m going. I’m so tired. My legs are really sore…” Chip complained.

“Well, there is one, I think, but we’ve passed it…” Ann took her phone from a little stuck-on holder somewhere near the steering wheel.

“It’s behind us? Damn it. If it was ahead, I’d get the petrol, and wouldn’t need to go back, you’d just get the car over there!” the older Morax spoke up. She opened the door on her side and was ready to leave.

The rest were speechless, trying to process what Chip just said.

“Uhhh… You’ll really go?” Ann decided to break the tension.

“Yes. I will go and get your car juice. Which one do you use?”

“Just get a jug, ninety-five. Jug’s in the trunk.”

“I can’t carry that much.”

“No- Chip, it’s not the amount we need. I say: get a jug of ninety-five. Just go there they’ll figure it out,” Ann rubbed her temples, groaning.

“Alright. You be careful here. I’ll be quick.”

“So glad I asked her to leave the pack at home…” Rick muttered.

Chip ran around the car and got to the trunk, grabbed the canister and ran off, falling once or twice in the progress until she completely vanished down the road in the other direction.

It was hot in the car. Ann boosted the air conditioning, hoping the cold blow of the wind from it would save them from completely melting - in the open field, no shade in sight. 

“I’m gonna get cooked alive…” Ann moaned, pressing her face on the steering wheel, and jolting back away from it - it was too hot.

“Oh! Right! Cooked! I brought something to eat. And some water…” Blitz suddenly spoke up and started rummaging through a backpack he kept somewhere down on the car floor at his feet, where no sun could reach it. He had some plastic containers inside with something wrapped in foil.

Rick seemingly already knew what that was, and put his gaming console aside at last to reach for the treat. Blitz quickly retaliated, raising the foiled food up to the car ceiling.

“Nuh-uh! Ann first. She worked hard today…” he said, furrowing his eyebrows. He could never be angry at Rick. Blitz leaned forward, offering the snack to Ann - he unwrapped it to reveal a stack of neatly done, almost precisely constructed butterbrots. Elegant. Tasty. Simple. Everyone loved it. And the first person to grab was lucky to get a free slice of bread placed on the top one.

And so did Ann, carefully scooping one from the top, with the extra bread. Rick watched, jealous just a pinch, and also somewhat confused as he wondered again and again - would Blitz’s manner of stacking butterbrots make the top one, in fact, a sandwich?

Perhaps it wouldn’t, since Ann outright refused to keep the extra slice on top, and ate it separately. Rick’s head hurt a little bit. The food was tasty however - nothing could spoil Blitz’s cooking. And water was refreshing - it was the simplest of all waters, but in a situation like that it tasted like nothing else on Solum.

Soon, Chip returned. She ran up to the car with the canister filled to the top of it, so heavy - but it was no challenge for the minotaur’s strength. She knocked on the window at the driver’s side with her head - hands full - and yelled:

“I got your ninety-five! Ann! Where’s the mouth?”

Ann rolled the window down.

“It’s at the other side, look for a small door thing.”

“Like, how small? A mouse small? A r-r-r-rat?” Chip rolled the r.

“... More like a rat. Go, come on.”

The minotaur ran around the car again, almost getting lost, but in the end did find the place where she had to pour the petrol in. She chuckled, talking to the car as she emptied the canister:   
“Drink up… you need to be strong and well-fed.”

After returning to the car, she looked back at Blitz and accused him of eating without her. He apologized, and offered Chip her favourite treat - a fine pretzel. Her diet was a bit extraordinary, but it didn’t seem to affect her anyway. For quite a while, she sat in peace, proud of herself, gnawing on the pretzel and biting it bit by bit.

At last, they reached the amusement park. It was a long journey, yet worth it - they certainly wanted to be there earlier, but the mishap on the road shifted the plans some bit. The amusement park was large, sponsored by some animation company all the way from Neo Awlins, apparently, spreading its influence to Piecewood. The locals didn’t mind - job opportunities and a place to be. Despite being so remote from the towns to the south, it still had many visitors almost daily, and some said that there were plans to build even more facilities around the area. But that didn’t matter to Galliards at the time - they were entering and already planning their route.

“Small Captain’s Voyage… then we go to the Chicocave. Then the Col-o-Vanguard ship, and uh… I think having a meal would be nice too,” Rick was voicing the plan to his mogwai. Apparently, as soon as they got there, he got a bit more invested into the visit.

“I still have some,” Blitz mentioned.

“That’s great, but it’s better we try local treats. Don’t be sad though. It’s just that we rarely come to a place like this. They have food and drink styled after the stuff we saw in the Star Kerfuffle 3 movie!” the young conjurer said.

“That’s the one with the laser pointers, right?” Blitz asked after a bit of thinking. He was a bit scared to not remember things Rick was into.

“Plasma.”

“Oh, right.”

Chip and Ann were on a different sort of track. A dangerous one.

“Okay. First we go to the Redwood Saloon…”

“Ann! No! We can’t! Why do they even allow it in an amusement park!”

“And then… ah. The Love Tower. I heard it’s a big climb.”

“Stop that!” Chip was huffing and puffing, blushing as she tried to stop Ann from embarrassing her any further, tugging on her conjurer’s shirt.

“And how could I forget… we’ll top it off with the Mega Super Death Drop!” Galliard said, laughing and pointing at a drop tower in the distance. It wasn’t too tall.

“... it looks like it’s barely six feet tall.”

“It will look taller after we get charged at the Redwood Saloon!” Ann laughed.

“Ann! No!”

Rick and Blitz enjoyed their route - the Voyage was a fun large swinging boat which almost made the poor minotaur sick, but he had his conjurer at the side and managed to pull through. The cave attraction was apparently a rather slow, but spooky boat ride through several tunnels, which almost scared Blitz out of the boat. Rick had to hold his mogwai by the arm at times to keep him from abandoning ship. The spectacular Col-o-Vanguard ship was a combined attraction, which featured both flight simulation followed by a match of laser tag, which both of the boys loved quite a bit - despite the fact Blitz was a really easy target. It turned out, however, that Blitz was quite accurate too when handling the funny laser tag gun - rick suggested trying his luck at a typical phony shooting gallery. There were many targets to hit, Blitz was handed a rather small single-shot rifle, which he had to crack in half each time to insert a new tiny round in. Surprisingly, in a much calmer environment, he managed to hit almost every target right away, and won a large penguin plushie prize. Rick was quite fascinated, although admitted that his handiwork is much better when it comes to sewing, and that he could probably make a better penguin himself. Still, considering his favourite online game had those, and Blitz won it, the young conjurer was quite happy and wouldn’t let go of the thing, making everyone around jealous. They finished their amusement journey at the Star Kerfuffle 3 themed diner. Soon they were joined by Chip and Ann…

Chip looked like she’s gone through hell and back. Surprisingly, Ann looked as sober as she ever could be. Apparently, the older Morax had to keep snatching drinks away from her conjurer at the rowdy Redwood Saloon, despite Galliards’ protests and strong wish to “be a cowboy, baby-y-y”. Chip also fell from the tower thing several times - as one would judge from amount of bruises she had when she finally arrived at the diner. As for the tower…

“... Don’t ask,” Chip rubbed her face and groaned. She was rarely seen so exhausted.

“I loved it! Chip saved my life when I almost fell while climbing,” Ann claimed, ruffling her mogwai’s hair, very affectionate.

All of them decided to have a funny-looking meal with beautiful drinks - alcohol-free, despite Ann’s desperate attempts at whispering something to the waiter. The sum turned out to be soul-crushingly expensive, but they endured. Once in a while is manageable.

“The layer of butter on our bread will be thin for the next couple of months…” Blitz said when they left the diner, all upset.

“Don’t dramatize like that,” his sister told him.

It was getting quite late. The Galliards and their mogwai came back to their car, all happy with their trip - despite minor inconveniences… Everyone took their rightful spot in the car and buckled up - a bit slower and even lazier than the first time, but still responsible. Ann carefully started up the trusty vehicle of hers, then hit the gas pedal - and they were off. This time with enough petrol.

“Wonder if the tanuki are going to dig a tunnel to this place. No way they won’t do that…” Rick thought out loud.

“Well, that’s a good idea. We wouldn’t need to go on such a long ride…” Ann agreed.

“It’s funny, though. Weird, but it was fun. I suppose,” Chip said quietly, resting her elbow on the car door to her side, setting her chin on top of her palm, staring through the glass at the utility poles, again.

Everyone fell silent for some while.

“I liked it too. We are always a bit… busy with our own things, but when we’re all together like this, I think it’s great fun. I mean. I understand it’s normal that we’re busy. But we should think of spending weekends together more often. If you wouldn’t mind, of course…” Blitz ranted for some time, sounding rather unsure or shy speaking up.

“I don’t mind that,” Ann said, steering the car carefully.

“Sounds good. But none of that bad stuff though!” Rick said, staring into the rear view mirror, which carried his stare right into Ann’s eyes. She glanced away just for a bit.

“Alright, alright…”

Their trip back home was calm. No arguments happened over listening to the late time radio, everyone did as they pleased in the car, relaxing. Perhaps, a change of pace once in a while was quite good for all of them, even Ann in the end felt like she had quite a good time dry.

Rick went straight to his room, apparently quite tired - or, perhaps, in need of some rest from everyone’s pleasant company. Blitz got inspired to cook something that would need to stay overnight, and got to work immediately. Ann and Chip sat down in the living room, just deep in thought.

“We should go on a road trip to Neo Awlins,” Ann said, all of the sudden.

“No. Absolutely not. That’s going to take days! We barely survived this one. Perhaps we’d train on short distances first?” Chip sounded almost genuinely distressed.

“Yeah. Sounds like a plan. Next time we go to that amusement park, you better win me a plushie too, like Blitz did.”

That definitely wouldn’t be the last road trip for the Galliards and their mogwai companions.


End file.
